Page 88 of To Challenge a Wolf

She put her hands on her hips. “You did not use yourself as an example many times.”

“No,” he said, “I used other examples, but the point remained the same. You didn’t want to hear it, Viv. I’m not the one who changed. You are.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. Maybe in a few years, she’d be able to look back on the fiasco of finding Rhett and see growth from the seed of last night. Today she could hardly believe how strong and new and free her thoughts seemed to be.

“Now, tell me one thing.”

She spread her hands. “Yes, I raided your kitchen.”

“And did you feed the cat?”

“Um…sorry, no?”

His nose wrinkled. “But you opened the tuna.”

“I made a tuna salad sandwich.”

At the horror that crossed his face, she couldn’t stop laughing.

“I thought it was a weird item amid all the gourmet and market-fresh stuff. But where’s the cat? I haven’t seen one all day.”

“She comes to the back glass door some mornings. I don’t see her daily.”

“Well, she didn’t come today, so I ate her food.”

“Vivian Leigh Rossi.” He covered his face and shook his head.

“Humans eat canned tuna all the time, Blaine. I bet even my namesake ate it. If it existed back then.”

“It’s not an appropriatethank-youby any means.”

“Not that she’s anactualnamesake, since there’s anain my name.”

“Technically you are the namesake, and I’m aware of how you spell your name, Vivling. As well as how she spelled hers.”

Vivian’s breath stilled in her chest. The way he said it…something… “Blaine?”

“Yes?” He crossed the room to sit as far from her as possible in a leather chair. He wasn’t clocking her interest, or he was ignoring it.

“Did you know her, the real Vivien Leigh?”

His head turned and his eyes shot to hers so quickly, her skin prickled. A shiver ran down her spine at the intensity of his focus, the reminder of his nature. Apex. Predator. It wasn’t a threatened feeling, not at all. It was more like awe, the sense she got when she saw pictures of breathtakingly beautiful, breathtakingly destructive storms. Hurricanes, tornadoes. Humans helpless in the path of power.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know better.”

“You know I’m old,” he said.

“I assume you are. You could also be the age you look, but…after getting to know you, I don’t think you are.”

“I’m not.”

A light chill danced over her shoulders. This was the most he had ever told her about his past. “Okay.”

A sigh seeped out of him, kept seeping for a full minute. She’d never seen him breathe so slowly, hadn’t known even a vampire possessed that kind of physical control. She stayed quiet.

At last he said, “I did not know her.”

“Okay,” Vivian said.

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